Purdue University Admission
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The Facts

Purdue is a large public university located in West Lafayette, Indiana, just north of the city of Indianapolis. The school is home to about 29,029 undergraduate students and about 7,996 graduate students. Purdue offers an enormous range of majors, with a pronounced emphasis on science and engineering. In fact, the school actually receives several federal and state grants that allow them to have hundreds of state-of-the-art research facilities on campus. The school boasts many distinguished alumni, particularly in the aerospace field--their most prominent alumnus is the first man on the moon, Neil Armstrong.

The school is made up of several undergraduate colleges including colleges of agriculture, consumer and family sciences, education, engineering, health sciences, liberal arts, management, nursing, pharmacy, science, technology, and veterinary medicine. Some of the most popular majors with students include majors in liberal arts, engineering, business, engineering technology, and agriculture. The school has a definite preprofessional bent, and most students actually know what they want to do before they even apply.

Admission to the school is fairly competitive; last year about 22,977 students applied, 18,076 were admitted, and 6,371 matriculated. The admitted students had an average combined SAT score ranging from 1030 to 1260 and an average comprehensive ACT score ranging from 23 to 28. Over 61% of the admitted students were ranked in the top 25% of their high school graduating class.

The school has a student to teacher ratio of 15:1, and students often complain that the class sizes are far too large. Students differ in opinion regarding the availability of their professors; some students claim that their teachers make themselves available 24/7, while others say they are way too wrapped up in their own research to even give students the time of day.

The Social Scene

The city of West Lafayette doesn’t really have much to offer in terms of entertainment--only a few bars, malls and movie theaters. Besides, most students don’t own cars because of the difficult parking situation, so it is much easier to use the Purdue U bus system to get around on campus. There are definitely a lot of fraternities and sororities on campus, and over 20% of students are involved. The Greeks do throw the inevitable parties, but they are not a terribly overwhelming presence on campus. Purdue is not generally known as a party school, but they do know how to have fun.

Students love their team, The Boilermakers, who are members of the Big Ten league. Students love to turn out in big numbers to their games, which are always an occasion for massive bashes.

The dating scene is quite good; expect classic corn-fed beauties and all-American jocks mixed up with suspender-wearing, bespectacled, tried-and-true geeks.

What's Good

“The campus is fantastic and self-contained. You could do quite well and never actually leave campus.”

“There are more research opportunities here than at any other university in the country. NASA loves this school!”

”The people here are really friendly and help you feel less overwhelmed in a big school like Purdue.”

What's Bad

“I mean, come on--the school is stuck in the middle of nowhere. There is nothing to do.”

“The introductory classes are way to big. I forget I’m in a class and usually just fall asleep straight away.”

“A lot of teachers seem to feel like undergrads are a waste of their time. They would rather discuss their research findings with grad students.”

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